309. Charity is the greatest virtue.

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 309

Ave Maria seriesWhat is charity?

Charity is the power by which we, who have been loved first by God, can give ourselves to God so as to be united with him and can accept our neighbor for God’s sake as unconditionally and sincerely as we accept ourselves.  [1822-1829, 1844]

Jesus Christ in white marble at Abajah, Nigeria and thought to be the biggest of its kind.   Photo Pius Utomi Ekpei  ….309

Jesus places love above all laws, without however abolishing the latter.  Therefore St. Augustine rightly says, “Love, and do what you will”; which is not at all as easy as it sounds.  That is why charity, love, is the greatest virtue, the energy that inspires all the other virtues and fills them with divine life.

“If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but not love, I am nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:2

“God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”  1 John 4:16

[1822-1829, 1844]

The cardinal virtues

Charity

1822 Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God. –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

1823 Jesus makes charity the new commandment.(Compare John 13:34.)⁹⁶ By loving his own "to the end,"(John 13:1)⁹⁷ he makes manifest the Father's love which he receives. By loving one another, the disciples imitate the love of Jesus which they themselves receive. Whence Jesus says: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love." And again: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."(John 15:9,12.)⁹⁸–CCC

1824 Fruit of the Spirit and fullness of the Law, charity keeps the commandments of God and his Christ: "Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love."(John 15:9-10; compare Matthew 22:40; Romans 13:8-10.)⁹⁹–CCC

1825 Christ died out of love for us, while we were still "enemies."(Romans 5:10.)¹⁰⁰ The Lord asks us to love as he does, even our enemies, to make ourselves the neighbor of those farthest away, and to love children and the poor as Christ himself.(Compare Matthew 5:44; Luke 10:27-37; Mark 9:37; Matthew 25:40, 45.)¹⁰¹ –CCC

The Apostle Paul has given an incomparable depiction of charity: "charity is patient and kind, charity is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Charity does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Charity bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."(1 Corinthians  13:4-7.)¹⁰² –CCC

1826 "If I . . . have not charity," says the Apostle, "I am nothing." Whatever my privilege, service, or even virtue, "if I . . . have not charity, I gain nothing."(1 Corinthians 13:1-4.)¹⁰³ Charity is superior to all the virtues. It is the first of the theological virtues: "So faith, hope, charity abide, these three. But the greatest of these is charity."(1 Corinthians 13:13.)¹⁰⁴–CCC

1827 The practice of all the virtues is animated and inspired by charity, which "binds everything together in perfect harmony";(Colossians 3:14.)¹⁰⁵ it is the form of the virtues; it articulates and orders them among themselves; it is the source and the goal of their Christian practice. Charity upholds and purifies our human ability to love, and raises it to the supernatural perfection of divine love. –CCC

1828 The practice of the moral life animated by charity gives to the Christian the spiritual freedom of the children of God. He no longer stands before God as a slave, in servile fear, or as a mercenary looking for wages, but as a son responding to the love of him who "first loved us"(Compare 1 John 4:19.)¹⁰⁶ him who commands . . . we are in the position of children.(St. Basil, Reg. fus. tract., prol. 3:Patrologia Graeca 31,896B.)¹⁰⁷– CCC

If we turn away from evil out of fear of punishment, we are in the position of slaves. If we pursue the enticement of wages, . . . we resemble mercenaries. Finally if we obey for the sake of the good itself and out of love for him who commands . . . we are in the position of children.(St. Basil, Reg. fus. tract., prol. 3:Patrologia Graeca 31,896B.)¹⁰⁷–CCC

1829 The fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy; charity demands beneficence and fraternal correction; it is benevolence; it fosters reciprocity and remains disinterested and generous; it is friendship and communion: Love is itself the fulfillment of all our works. There is the goal; that is why we run: we run toward it, and once we reach it, in it we shall find rest.(St. Augustine, In ep. Jo. 10,4:Patrologia Latina 35,2057.)¹⁰⁸–CCC

IN BRIEF

1844 By charity, we love God above all things and our neighbor as ourselves for love of God. Charity, the form of all the virtues, "binds everything together in perfect harmony" (Colossians 3:14).

Statue  Africa  Jesus Christ